The process of gathering, analyzing, and comprehending data about your target audience is known as audience analysis. Determining your audience’s identity is the primary objective. Their preferences, habits, and needs. as well as how they interact with your industry or brand.
While what is being said about your brand is important, who says it is just as important if not even more – Many tools will provide brands with a way to understand what consumers are saying about their products, ads, competitors, and more. Any marketing decision you make begins with defining your buying persona. If you want to scale, you must perform an audience analysis.
An audience analysis will grant brands a deeper understanding of their current and potential customers. An examination of your target audience helps you respond to queries like:
- Who comprises my primary audience?
- What expectations do they have, and how do they view my brand?
- What demands or obstacles do they have that my service or product can help with?
- Which platforms and kinds of content will allow me to reach and interact with them the most effectively?
There is more to audience analysis than just data collection. It involves delving deeply into the causes and motivations influencing the actions of your audience
Key Takeaways
- Audience analysis helps businesses understand their customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors, enabling better-targeted communication and marketing strategies.
- Types of audience analysis include demographic, psychographic, and behavioral analysis, which together provide a comprehensive view of the audience.
- Tools like Omniconvert and other analytics platforms can simplify the process of gathering insights into customer demographics, behavior, and engagement.
- Customer engagement through surveys and interviews adds depth to data, offering more personalized insights into customer motivations and pain points.
- Regular updates to audience analysis ensure businesses stay relevant, responding to changing preferences and industry trends effectively.
What Is Audience Analysis?
Audience analysis refers to identifying the interests, preferences, demographics, location, and other aspects of a specific group. Performing an audience analysis means identifying your target audience and adapting your marketing messages and tactics to their level of understanding, attitudes, and beliefs. The goal of an audience analysis is to deepen the relationship between you and your customers due to much better-targeted communication.
Why Is Audience Analysis Important?
Knowing your audience means that you can anticipate its needs. Imagine that you’re throwing a party at your house and you’re inviting friends over. If you know their tastes, the party will be a success. If you have no idea what your friends eat or not, it’s gonna be sad. It goes the same for audience analysis: it’s THE thing to do if you want to turn more leads into customers.
An audience-centered approach is important for brands because this way the effectiveness of their communication efforts will be improved – messages will be created and delivered appropriately. However, identifying your target audience through extensive research is sometimes tricky, so audience adaptation often relies on a healthy use of imagination.
There are multiple types of audience analysis that you can conduct: a demographic analysis, a psychographic analysis, and a behavioral analysis.
Types of Audience Analysis
Before going into details, let me set up the expectations first: an audience analysis will not prevent errors in judgment (at least not entirely). An audience analysis isn’t something mathematical, you’re not gonna receive a formula that you should use to formulate your marketing messages, because there’s a limit to what you can learn about your customers.
But knowing how to gather and use information through audience analysis is an essential skill for any marketer, so that’s what you should expect: get insights that enable you to make data-informed decisions.
Demographic Analysis
Demographic information includes factors such as gender, age range, marital status, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. A demographic analysis is a good place to start because it allows marketers to classify people by certain characteristics that are more consistent than variables. For example, a person cannot change his or her age, gender, or race.
Age
Age is not just a number as it can reveal many things about an individual. For example, teens and people in their 20s have no memory of wars or life in a totalitarian regime.
Gender
Gender can also define human experience as women and men within the same culture have different experiences. For example, women are excluded from certain career paths that are thought to be more suitable for men.
Marriage and divorce
Marriage and divorce, especially when children are involved, are also perceived differently by men and women.
Subcultures
Subcultures exist within and alongside larger cultural groups. Today it’s easier than ever to immigrate, so you should never assume that everyone shares the same heritage.
There is wide variability in religion as well: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and many others. Even within Christianity, there are Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox (Greek and Russian), and a variety of Protestant denominations.
The level of education (as well as the type of education) also plays an important role in the demographic analysis. An airplane mechanic undergoes a very different type of education and training from that of an accountant, musician, or software engineer.
Fraternities and sororities, sports teams, campus organizations, political parties, volunteerism, and cultural communities also shape our understanding of the world.
Last but not least, occupations influence people’s perceptions and interests as there are many misconceptions about most professions. For instance, many people believe that teachers work an eight-hour day and have summers off.
As you can see, there are many things you can learn about your customers just by performing a demographic analysis. The best part is that many tools allow you to do this analysis fairly easily. For example, if you’re running Facebook or Google ads, these platforms come with a built-in audience analysis component that you can use.
Psychographic Analysis
A psychographic analysis includes aspects like values, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs. While demographic information is fairly straightforward and verifiable, psychographic information is not that clear. Two different people who both say they don’t buy junk food may have very different standards for what specific kinds of foods are considered “junk food” for example.
A psychographic analysis can reveal pre-existing notions that limit your audience’s frame of reference. By knowing about such notions ahead of time, you can write your message accordingly. Audiences are likely to have two basic kinds of preexisting notions: those about your topic and those about the brand.
Pre-Existing Notions About Your Topic
Pre-existing notions about your topic may include misconceptions or stereotypes. To find out about any misconception, when you are conducting your audience analysis, include questions that reveal how much your audience already knows about your topic; try to ascertain the existence of stereotyped, oversimplified, or prejudiced attitudes about it. This might make a difference in the message you want to relay as well as how you want to relay it.
Pre-Existing Notions About Your Brand
Pre-existing notions about your brand, on the other hand, are more related to first impressions, and how customers perceive you. However, you should focus on serving your audience’s needs and interests, not debunking their opinions of you or managing your image.
One of the tools that you can use to perform a psychographic analysis is Google Trends. Besides identifying the latest trends, Google Trends can also be used to monitor marketing performance (not only are you able to see how many searches per month your brand has, but you can also determine the context of these searches), or choose best performing keywords (or specific keywords your customers use that you may not know about).
Behavioral Analysis
Performing a behavioral analysis means analyzing consumer learning and behavior, understanding the customer journey, and evaluating why some consumers buy your products while others don’t. This type of analysis can reveal both opportunities and problem areas for a business.
Most online retailers and social media sites already use behavioral analyses. By targeting ads to specific needs, companies can provide goods and services that will not only fill consumer closets but also improve their quality of life. For example, a skincare brand can create and implement advertising that encourages people to use anti-aging products that have a newly discovered component.
There are many tools that you can use to perform a behavioral analysis. One of them is Omniconvert. Omniconvert enables marketers to learn more about their customers through A/B tests, surveys, and advanced segmentation.
These types of analyses can, of course, be performed on your audience, but they are even more insightful when performed on your competitors’. This leads us to branded/unbranded analysis.
Branded analysis means looking at the audience for a specific brand (Coca-Cola, ASOS, Apple, etc.), while unbranded analysis looks at the audience for the type of product and related topics (fashion, laptops, canned soda, etc.). Understanding the basic demographics of an audience is helpful, but understanding the intricacies of consumer preferences related to a brand or product is priceless.
Audience Analysis Examples
1. Locating Your Audience
Along with age and gender, location is one of the simplest insights you can gain about your audience. You can identify where people are discussing about you, your products, or any other topic. You can also filter other analysis results by location to better understand an audience in a specific place.
2. Track Affinities And Interests
Knowing your audience’s location and demographics is a good start, but it isn’t enough. Learning what an audience cares about is key to understanding each individual. If you’re analyzing your audience, you know that they are interested in your brand or products; but what else are they interested in?
3. Finding New Audiences
Understanding your current customers is the first step to identifying opportunities to expand your audience. For example, if your audience mainly consists of women in their 20s, this could prove an opportunity to reach more men. By looking at the patterns of your male buyers you can adjust your message to appeal to this category more and attract more leads.
4. Segmenting Your Audience
There are many ways you can segment your audience for better targeting and measurement, depending on your goals. Finding smaller segments within your larger audience that would benefit from different marketing and ads can lead to a boost in sales that you wouldn’t get by targeting your audience as a whole.
5. Identifying Influencers
Do you know who influences your audience? Or who could persuade a potential new audience to convert? Identifying influencers within your audience can help you determine your engagement strategy. Influencers can be celebrities or bloggers, but they can also be regular customers who act more like brand ambassadors.
How to Perform Audience Analysis
Understanding your audience is key to crafting successful marketing strategies and reaching your business goals. Whether you’re targeting new customers or strengthening relationships with existing ones, an effective audience analysis can provide you with the insights you need to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Here’s how you can conduct a complete audience analysis:
1. Analyze Your Current Customers
Start by examining your existing customer base. Your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system or database can be a goldmine for identifying patterns and behaviors. Look at:
- Who has purchased from you in the last 6-12 months
- What products do they buy and when
- Trends in repeat purchases, returns, and customer service interactions
This data will give you a baseline understanding of who your customers are, what they like, and how they prefer to engage with your brand.
2. Analyze Your Website, Visitors
Your website is a crucial touchpoint between your brand and potential customers. By analyzing website traffic with tools like Google Analytics, you can uncover valuable information about your visitors. Some important metrics to track include:
- How visitors found your website
- The customer journey through your site (where they enter and exit)
- Which pages or blog articles are most popular
- Engagement with videos and other multimedia
- Where visitors drop off or lose interest
This data helps you refine your content, improve user experience, and make more informed marketing decisions.
3. Check Social Media Insights
Social media platforms are an excellent resource for understanding how people perceive and interact with your brand. By using tools like Omniconvert, you can track:
- Mentions of your brand (both positive and negative)
- Changes in brand perception over time
- Specific conversations and customer feedback about your products or services
This can help you identify areas for improvement and opportunities for engagement.
4. Leverage Audience Analysis Tools
Audience analysis tools can simplify the process of gathering insights. Tools like Omniconvert offer deep data on audience demographics, socioeconomics, and behavior. To get started, enter your competitors’ URLs, and the tool will generate a report showing:
- Audience distribution by age and gender
- Number of web visitors and their locations
- Household size, income levels, education, and employment status
These insights help you tailor your marketing messages to resonate with different segments of your audience, ensuring your efforts align with their needs and behaviors.
5. Engage Directly with Your Customers
While data provides valuable insights, direct customer engagement offers a more nuanced understanding. Use methods like:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Market research
This qualitative research allows you to dig deeper into your customers’ motivations, pain points, and perceptions of your brand. Engaging with customers directly enables you to ask follow-up questions and get richer insights than data alone can provide.
6. Segment Your Audience
Not all customers are the same, and a one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective. Audience segmentation allows you to divide your audience into groups based on specific characteristics. This helps you deliver more targeted messaging. Common segmentation methods include:
- Demographic Segmentation: Age, gender, location, etc.
- Socioeconomic Segmentation: Income, education, occupation
- Psychographic Segmentation: Interests, values, lifestyles
Breaking your audience into segments lets you address their unique preferences and behaviors, which can lead to better engagement and higher conversion rates.
7. Create Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers. These profiles are built using data from your audience analysis, and they help you personalize your marketing efforts. A comprehensive buyer persona typically includes:
- Demographic info: Age, location, gender identity, education, income
- Professional info (for B2B): Job title, company size, responsibilities
- Psychographic insights: Motivations, pain points, content preferences
Tools like Omniconvert can guide you through this process and help you easily create and share personas with your team.
8. Share Insights Across Your Organization
Audience insights are valuable to every department, not just marketing. Ensure that insights are shared with teams like:
- Sales: So they can tailor their approach to specific customer needs
- Product Development: To help design features and products that solve customer problems
- Customer Service: So they can anticipate customer pain points and offer better solutions
Hold workshops or meetings to explain the insights and how they impact each department’s work. Collaboration across departments ensures that your audience analysis leads to actionable strategies.
9. Keep Your Audience Analysis Up to Date
The preferences, values, and behaviors of your audience can shift over time, so it’s essential to revisit your audience analysis regularly. Stay proactive by:
- Monitoring changes in communication platforms and trends
- Collecting regular feedback through surveys and customer interactions
- Updating buyer personas and audience segments
By keeping your audience analysis current, you ensure that your marketing efforts continue to resonate and remain effective as the market evolves.
Frequently Asked Questions About Audience Analysis
What are the 3 types of audience analysis?
The three types of audience analysis are demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Demographic analysis looks at basic traits like age, gender, and income. Psychographic analysis explores values, interests, and lifestyles. Behavioral analysis examines actions like browsing and purchasing habits. Together, these methods help businesses better understand and target their audience.
What do you mean by audience analysis?
Audience analysis is the process of gathering and understanding information about a target audience, including their characteristics, preferences, and behaviors. It involves studying demographics, psychographics, and behaviors to tailor communication and marketing strategies. This helps businesses make informed decisions and create more engaging, relevant experiences for their audience.
What are the 5 aspects of audience analysis?
The five aspects of audience analysis include Demographics, Psychographics, Behaviors, Communication Preferences, Needs, and Expectations. By considering these five aspects of audience analysis, businesses can develop a comprehensive understanding of their target audience and create tailored strategies, products, and experiences that resonate with them.
How often should you conduct audience analysis?
Audience analysis should be an ongoing process, but at a minimum, it’s recommended to conduct a thorough review every 6-12 months. Additionally, consider reanalyzing your audience whenever you launch a new product, enter a new market, or notice a significant shift in customer behavior or industry trends.
What are the common mistakes to avoid during audience analysis?
Some common mistakes include relying solely on demographic data without considering psychographic and behavioral insights, failing to update the analysis regularly, and ignoring the feedback or input from direct customer engagement like surveys and interviews. Avoiding these pitfalls ensures a more accurate and actionable understanding of your audience.
